A crowd pleaser Roasted Tomato Salsa – bright, tangy & so flavorful! It’s always the star of parties served with tortilla chips. Also great on tacos, tostadas, with chips and everything you can get your hands on!
You know that salsa that everyone loves and raves about when you’re at a party? This Roasted Tomato Salsa it is!
Everyone should have a go-to homemade Mexican salsa recipe in their arsenal. I know jarred salsa is so convenient, but there’s nothing like a homemade one. It’s a medium heat salsa that everyone will enjoy.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- You can’t beat this fresh roasted salsa! Roasting gives it such a great flavor- way better than store bought!
- So flavorful! Roasting the tomatoes brings out their natural sweetness and intensifies their flavor.
- Versatile: You can control the level of heat and spice to suit your taste preferences. If you like it milder, you can remove the seeds and ribs from the peppers before roasting or choose milder pepper varieties. On the other hand, if you enjoy some fiery heat, you can keep the seeds and ribs or use spicier peppers like jalapeños or serranos. It’s all up to you!:
This is the best tomato based salsa but if you’re looking for a dried chile one, I recommend you check out my Chile De Arbol .
Ingredients
The beauty of this roasted tomato salsa recipe is that the ingredients are available at any grocery store. Easy to find & easy to make!
- White or yellow onion
- The juice of one large lime
- Roma (plum) tomatoes or your favorite ripe red tomato
- Red bell pepper
- Jalapeño peppers or serrano for a spicier salsa
- Fresh garlic cloves
- Fresh cilantro
- A little red wine or champagne vinegar
- black pepper & kosher salt
How to make Roasted Tomato Salsa
- Let’s start by adding the onions and lime juice in a small bowl. This process will take away the strong raw onion taste. Set aside to marinade while we roast the other ingredients.
- Spread the tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeños, & garlic over a baking sheet and broil about 3 inches from the heat (top of oven) for 15 minutes or until the top of the vegetables are roasted .
- Once the vegetables are cooled, add to a food processor or blender (unpeeled) along with the onions and cilantro.
- Pulse a few times or blend briefly until the onions & cilantro is roughly chopped.
- Transfer to a bowl and add the vinegar, salt & pepper.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat. Store in an airtight container up to a week.
Chef’s notes
- Roasting tomatoes for salsa in the oven deepens their flavor and creates a mild sweetness that helps balance the heat and acidity.
- If you decide to use serrano peppers instead of jalapeños, do note that they’re generally much hotter. You can also do a combination of both peppers for extra level of spiciness.
- They go great on eggs, quesadillas, nachos, tacos, burritos or whatever dish you want.
- Salsa makes a fantastic gift It can be enjoyed immediately and it doesn’t require any complicated preparation or cooking. All you need is a bag of tortilla chips, and you’re ready to dip and enjoy!
FAQs
When it comes to making salsa, the choice of tomatoes is largely a matter of personal preference. While smaller tomatoes, such as Roma or plum tomatoes, are commonly used for salsa due to their concentrated flavor and texture, there’s no reason you can’t use big tomatoes too.
If you decide to use big tomatoes, just dice the tomatoes into smaller pieces to ensure they roast and blend well with the other ingredients and provide a balanced texture.
There is no need to peel tomatoes before or after roasting. Once the skin becomes charred, you can remove it prior to pureeing the tomatoes or leave it. However, when making this roasted salsa recipe, it is best to leave the skin on as the charred skin is what gives that delicious deep flavor.
Storage: Tomato based salsa lasts about 5 to 6 days stored in the refrigerator placed in an airtight container. Dried chile based salsas last 8 to 10 days.
More Mexican Salsas:
Try any of my delicious salsas…. Always authentic, easy & delicious!
I hope you like this recipe! Share it, or leave a rating and comment below. For questions that need an answer right away, please contact me and I’ll get back to you asap. Gracias!!!! xx, Ana
Print Recipe:
Roasted Tomato Salsa
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 large lime
- 5 roma tomatoes cut in half
- 1 red bell pepper cut in half, seeds removed
- 2 to 3 jalapeños or serrano peppers for a spicier salsa
- 2 garlic cloves peeled
- ½ cup cilantro
- 1 ½ Tablespoon red wine or champagne vinegar
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a small bowl add the onions and the juice of the lime. Set aside.
- Spread the tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeños, & garlic over a baking sheet and broil about 3 inches from the heat (top of oven) for 15 minutes for or until the top of the vegetables are roasted .
- Once the vegetables are cool, add to a food processor along with the onions and cilantro.
- Pulse a few times or blend briefly until the onions & cilantro is roughly chopped.
- Transfer to a bowl and add the vinegar, salt & pepper.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat.
Muy Delish Notes:
Add Your Own Private Notes
Whenever you come back to this recipe, you’ll be able to see your notes.
Nutrition
The nutritional information and US conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this is important to you, please verify with your favourite nutrition calculator and/or unit conversion tool.
The story behind this salsa
The credit for this recipe inspiration goes to my dear childhood friend Ilse from my hometown Obregon Sonora as she’s the one I tried it from first. She took my Salsa Mexicana recipe and combined it with a couple of other steps from our friend Claudia’s salsa.
So clever!
She added red bell pepper and the pickled onion. This elevates my original salsa to a different level!!
This is really good salsa.
Thank you Kevin! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this salsa. Happy New Year!
My favorite go to salsa. Have used this at a lot of parties. Everyone always comments and devours this with tortilla chips.
I discovered this recipe last summer, tried it, and loved it! I have been making it since. I love the delicious smell and taste of roasted veggies. Thank you for sharing it. I’ll definitely keep visiting your website for more wonderful ideas.
I’m so happy you loved my salsa, I can eat it all day with almost everything or just with tortilla chips. It’s so essential in my house that as soon as we ran out, my hubby runs off to buy the ingredients. I really love your new blog! Especially the idea to click on the picture to go to the recipe, so clever!
I never have made a roasted tomato salsa before and definitely think its something I need to try after seeing this post. I’m all for snacks.. so this is ideal.
Hi Thalia! You definitely should! It is so delicious you will never buy salsa from a jar again. I hope you have a wonderful day!